Meiosis in the spotlight: VBC PhD Award for Lucija Orlić
The Vienna BioCenter PhD Award 2026 goes to Lucija Orlić from the Matos lab for her doctoral work on the mechanisms that resolve meiotic recombination intermediates into crossovers. The award recognizes outstanding PhD theses from across the Vienna BioCenter institutes and was established by former Perutz group leader Renée Schroeder. Lucija’s research has uncovered how different DNA repair pathways are coordinated during meiosis, with parts of the work recently published in Nature Communications.
Wt1's up in the epiblast
Embryonic development depends on individual cells with identical genetic content acquiring distinct identities, morphologies, and locations in complex tissues. How these first developmental trajectories are encoded remains poorly understood. In a new study published in Nature Communications, first author Luis Miguel Cerron-Alvan from the Leeb lab shows that alternatively spliced variants of the transcription factor Wt1 can bias pluripotent cells toward distinct lineages. The findings reveal an unexpected layer of regulation over early cell-fate decisions and offer new insight into how embryonic axes begin to emerge, long before they become morphologically apparent.
Marek Kravec explores autophagy with ESPRIT
Marek Kravec from the Martens lab has been awarded a three-year FWF ESPRIT fellowship to investigate how ER-localized VAP proteins organize the autophagy machinery during autophagosome formation. The ESPRIT program supports early-career postdoctoral researchers in developing independent research projects and building their scientific profile at Austrian institutions.
From Parkinson’s to tardigrades: two Perutz postdocs receive VIP³ fellowship
Rachel Anderson (Hallacli lab) and Harsh Ranawat (Köhler lab) have been awarded three-year fellowships through the competitive Vienna BioCenter Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Program 3 (VIP³). Rachel will investigate how alpha-synuclein disrupts RNA metabolism in Parkinson’s disease, while Harsh will study how the internal organization of tardigrade cells enables survival under extreme stress. Funded by the European Commission with €2.7 million, the VIP³ program supports interdisciplinary and collaborative projects across two Vienna BioCenter groups, helping fellows build independent research profiles and broaden their scientific networks.
The Perutz says welcome to Alba Diz-Muñoz
Alba Diz-Muñoz will join the Max Perutz Labs in 2027. Combining bioengineering, biophysical and imaging approaches, her lab studies how mechanical forces at the cell surface shape fundamental processes such as cell division, migration and differentiation. The Diz-Muñoz lab will therefore bring new expertise in cell mechanics and mechanobiology to the Perutz.
MSCA Doctoral Network 'cisCODE' with Christa Bücker
The newly funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network ‘cisCODE’ brings together academic and industry partners across Europe to tackle a central challenge in genomics: understanding how non-coding DNA controls gene activity. Perutz group leader Christa Bücker is part of the four-year, €4.6 million network which will train 15 doctoral researchers to use genomics, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to decipher the regulatory code of the genome.
Peter Fuchs receives FWF funding for skin research
Perutz group leader Peter Fuchs has received funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for a Principal Investigator project investigating how the protein epiplakin helps protect the skin under stress. By studying how epiplakin interacts with keratin networks during UV exposure and bacterial challenge, the project aims to uncover how skin cells maintain their structure and barrier function in damage-inducing environments.
Milena Schuhmacher to join the Perutz as new group leader
The Max Perutz Labs are pleased to welcome Milena Schuhmacher as its newest group leader. Milena will join the Perutz in 2027, bringing a chemical biology toolkit and perspective to the study of lipids and membrane organization. Milena currently leads an independent group at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, where her research focuses on lipid signaling and on developing tools to visualize and manipulate individual lipid species in cells. Working at the interface of chemistry and cell biology, she aims to understand how lipid diversity is translated into specific cellular functions. Her work will further complement the Perutz’s existing research strengths.
A MAST-have for neurodevelopment
Mega corpus callosum (MCC) syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, is associated with mutations in the serine/threonine kinase MAST1, a signaling protein expressed in the brain. However, next to nothing is known about MAST1. In a new PNAS study, first author Sumire Antonioli from the Leonard lab has identified previously unknown components of the signaling cascade and characterized how disease-associated mutations alter MAST1 function. The findings suggest that MAST1 may link actin and microtubule cytoskeleton dynamics during neuronal development.
Bojan Žagrović joins new MSCA Doctoral Network
Perutz group leader Bojan Žagrović is part of the newly funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Doctoral Network ‘PhaseCat’, which brings together five academic research groups and two companies across Europe to investigate the catalytic potential of protein-RNA condensates. Coordinated by Wim De Malsche at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, the four-year network has a total funding volume of €2.6 million and will support nine PhD researchers, two of them associated with the Žagrović group including one jointly mentored with a group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Special delivery – lipid transport for autophagy
Building an autophagosome requires cells to rapidly assemble and expand membranes at the right place and time. In a new study published in Nature Communications, first author Elisabeth Holzer from the Martens lab found that the lipid composition of mammalian precursor membranes differ substantially from their yeast counterparts. The team identified the lipid transport protein ATG2A and ATG8-like proteins on the nascent phagophore membrane as key factors in delivering the phosphatidylinositol (PI) required to drive membrane biogenesis. By clarifying how autophagosome formation is controlled, the findings may help better understand how defects in autophagy contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
Marco Hein named Researcher of the Month at the Medical University of Vienna
In their ‘Researcher of the Month’ series, the Medical University of Vienna features outstanding scientists and their work. In September, group leader Marco Hein was selected for his postdoctoral work at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, where he developed a high-throughput method to map protein localization across cellular compartments, providing new insights into how cells organize and regulate their proteins in space and time.
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